I didn’t intend to read two collections of linked short stories back to back but am glad I did. I was feeling that perhaps I was unduly harsh on my prior review (You Know When the Men are Gone) but this confirmed it for me. The stories in this collection are on an entirely different level. This book is essentially divided into two parts, the first with stories about one couple and the second covering another couple, with the occasional one-off stories thrown in. Amy Bloom’s writing is superb and there isn’t a trite, clichéd, overused phrase or concept in it. Each tale was fully satisfying, if not somewhat disturbing. I struggled between a 3 and a 4 (the writing itself is a 5) only because when the characters are less than sympathetic they are in a major way. For example, when one character describes a sexual encounter as feeling like giving birth it was extremely disturbing to read (you have to read it to understand what I mean) and it made me very, very wary of her until the very end of her collection. Her section (“Lionel and Julia”) was also more difficult because they kept introducing more and more characters and by the end I couldn’t keep it all straight. Having too many characters in a short story is a bit of a bold move and it didn’t pay off for me. Still, though, this was satisfying and engaging and great for anyone who likes the format.